You Got This
by Turtle2
Summary: Stranded in the wilderness with a wounded Kelly, Gordon must be more than just a pilot if he's going to save them both. Rated for language.
1. Road Trip Games

Gordon Malloy was bored. Four straight hours on the shuttle with nothing but stars to break up the blackness beyond the space shield, and a route that could have been flown by a first-year academy cadet had him feeling like his eyes were about to start moving independently of each other. A first-year cadet majoring in botany could have done it. _Auto-pilot_ could have done a perfectly bang-up job. But when your captain spends the better part of a morning briefing explaining how you have to go help stop a war, you don't go claiming made-up dental appointments to get out of it.

He'd caught the highlights of Ed's broadcast, as he usually did when meetings went extra long: Blah blah blah diplomatic mission, blah blah blah planet on the verge of civil war, something about Commander Grayson and the admiralty, and finally, needing the best helmsman in the fleet for the job.

Of course, Kelly Grayson was the only actual diplomat in this preliminary meeting between the two ruling factions of Okuul. Gordon's only job was to get her there and back, and it had been made abundantly clear to him that he was not to say a word from the time they landed to the time they headed home. He just hadn't expected it to start before they even got there.

Kelly had spent the entire ride so far with her nose in a book and her feet crossed at the ankle on her console. It was the kind of thing you could only get away with when you reached a certain rank, like completely ignoring your pilot on a six-hour flight.

"Passing Degoba Star System, and all's well," he said when he finally couldn't take it anymore. "We should be right on time."

"Great," said Kelly, not looking up from the book. "Keep it up."

"I could probably get us there a few minutes early, if you're up for a shortcut. There's a few asteroids between here and there, but nothing I couldn't handle."

"On time will be fine, Lieutenant."

He nodded. "Aye, sir."

With the course set to cruise for the next forty minutes, he leaned back in his chair and drummed his fingers on the console, puffing air through his lips in an attempt to resist whistling.

"So. What are you reading?" he asked.

Kelly looked up. "Oh, this? It's _The Color Purple._"

"Oh, yeah." Gordon nodded a little too emphatically. "That's a great one."

Kelly's eyebrows arched. "You've read it?"

"No, but I saw the movie, like, fifty times. Prince, Morris Day… Wait, that was _Purple Rain_. Still, great movie. Have you seen it?"

With a polite smile, Kelly shook her head, and turned back to her book.

"Did I tell you I'm thinking of getting an aquarium for the bridge?"

Kelly lowered the book again. "What?"

"Yeah. I thought it'd be nice, you know, having a pet up there. Remember how I was thinking about a cat? I'm pretty sure Bortus eats them. Then I though about a ferret, but Isaac said it might get into the wiring. But with an aquarium –"

"Yeah. Sounds nice. I'll run it by Ed."

Gordon smiled. "I knew you'd be on board. Just do me a favor and make it sound like it was your idea? Bortus never lets me have any fun."

"Hm."

Gordon was quiet just long enough for Kelly to find her place in the book again. "Hey, you want to play a game?"

"Actually, I –"

"Come on, it'll be fun. It's the alphabet came, perfect for road trips. We pick a category, and then take turns thinking of something from the category that starts with each letter. First person to get stumped loses. Oh, I've got the perfect first category! Let's do show tunes. Everybody likes show tunes. I'll start. Let's see… A… A… show tune that starts with A… Hm… Ummmmm…"

Kelly sighed. "America' from _West Side Story_?"

Gordon threw his head back and groaned. "Aw, man! I was just about to say that. Now I've got to think of another one."

"Well, let me know when you do," said Kelly.

"A… A, A, A…" Gordon murumured, drumming his fingers on his chin.

"Aft starboard."

Gordon waggled his finger at her. "You're not going to convince me that that's a show tune. And I don't think you understand the rules, here."

"No, there's something coming up on our aft starboard corner. There shouldn't be anything out here but asteroids." Kelly swung her feet to the floor and frowned at her console. "I don't know what it is, but it's big. And fast. Can you get a signature?"

Gordon switched his own display to show a large green blip approaching them rapidly from behind. He hit the scanner, which quickly showed a result that made his heart seize on itself.

"It's Krill," he said.

In the next moment, the shuttle rocked against an impact that almost threw both of them from their chairs, and the lights temporarily dimmed.

"Direct hit!" Gordon reported. "Aft starboard engine down to sixty percent. They're hailing us."

Kelly's mouth set into a grim line. "Put it through."

The space shield flashed into the image of a male Krill officer's craggy white face.

"Union vessel," he said in a voice like sandpaper. "Identify yourself and your business."

"I'm Commander Kelly Grayson of the starship _Orville_," said Kelly. "Who are you? And what business of yours is our business?"

"Colonel Herzic of the hundred and third regiment. You are trespassing in Krill space."

"Krill space?" said Kelly. "This is a neutral zone." 

Herzic's mouth twisted cruelly. "Not anymore. The Krill now lay claim here."

"Since when? Twenty minutes ago, when you saw we were here? Be reasonable, Colonel. In case you hadn't heard, Krill and the Union just won a major battle against the Kaylon, fighting on the _same side_. Firing on a Union vessel is an act of war."

"It's a little late for that," Gordon muttered.

"_Ssh_!"

Herzic slapped the armrests of his command chair and leaned forward. "I do not have to explain myself to heretics like you! Surrender and prepare to be taken into custody, or you will be destr-"

The screen filled with starry night again as Kelly cut the link.

"Get us out of here, Lieutenant."

"Aye, sir!"

Gordon punched the thrusters just in time to avoid another shot, which whizzed past the bow. The jolt slammed both of them against their seatbacks.

"Can we outrun them with half an engine missing?" Kelly asked, eyes on her fingers as the danced across her console.

"No," said Gordon, "but we can outfly them. You might want to strap in, Commander."

Kelly reached for her seatbelt. "You fly, I'll shoot."

The shuttle rocked and swayed with Gordon's maneuvers, and the heavy cruiser flashed in and out of view. The up-down-zigzag-loop-the-looping made it almost impossible for the Krill to hit them, and multiple shots flashed by the shuttle's sides harmlessly, like a cow trying to swat a wasp with its tail. Unfortunately, it was also impossible for Kelly to get a lock on the bigger ship's weapons banks. Gordon didn't seem to notice.

"That's right, Colonel Hertz or whatever your name is! You picked the wrong helmsman on the wrong day!"

"Gordon! Stop teasing them and get us around to their portside before our engine goes completely."

"Aye, sir. Hang on!"

He swung the shuttle in a wide arc, coming at the Krill's port side from below. With the locking system still thrown off by the dizzying flight, Kelly held her breath, used her eyes, and fired.

The beam of their shot carved a gash across the Krill cruiser until finally, it burned across the bank of weapons in a burst of fire and sparks.

Gordon pounded his fist on his thigh. "Yeah! How does that taste, you bug-eating motherf-"

The shuttle rocked again, harder this time, and the interior darkened to a flashing red light as the alarms began to wail.

"Direct hit!" said Kelly. "Starboard engine's toast."

"Well, that's not good…" Another hit, and Gordon was sure his seatbelt would leave a mark. "Hull integrity's at forty. They're hailing us again."

"Another chance to surrender. Then they want us alive." Kelly tapped a command into her console. "There's a planet with breathable atmosphere on heading four-eight-three mark nine. Can you get us there?"

"Not without getting caught in the atmosphere. I'm not sure we can survive the gravity with just one engine."

Kelly allowed a glance at him. "I'll take my chances with gravity over the Krill, wouldn't you?"

Gordon nodded, set his jaw, and flew. With the cruiser hot on their tail the whole time, they sped, dodged, and shot their way through the following five or six minutes, each just waiting for the next hit to vaporize them. Despite the volley of shots from the Krill, the hit never came, and the stars in shuttle's view were soon replaced by the glowing blue and green marble of the planet, then clouds, then the treetops and hills of a vast forest, all whizzing by as Gordon fought to maintain control.

By now, the whole shuttle was shaking with the force of an earthquake, the hull ready to buckle under the blistering speed.

"I can't hold it, Commander!" Gordon yelled, his voice vibrating with the turbulence. "We need more power to the reverse thrusters, or we're going to be mosquitoes on a windshield when we hit the ground!"

"Diverting life support! Hold on!"

The thrusters roared, but were almost drowned out by the cracking of the treetops on the shuttle's underbelly. The viewing field filled with branches, leaves, vines. The shuttle slammed against a rock face and went spinning into another, yanking the officers about in their chairs so hard that their breath left them.

The last thing Gordon saw before the final impact was Kelly with her head ducked into the crash position. He had just enough time to think that maybe that was a good idea.

Thanks for reading, everyone! If you like my writing, check out my pirate novel, available on Kindle! Guin-Sea-Turtle-Anna-Lee-ebook/dp/B01CM4XBB6


	2. Stranded With Your Best Friend's Ex-Wife

Captain Ed Mercer sipped his third coffee cup of the morning, somehow managing to keep the caffeine tremor from sloshing the scalding brew onto his office desk as he read over the briefing on Okuulian etiquette. He was quickly finding that it was about as complicated as the protocols for the English royals back on earth. Never sit when the high diplomat stands, unless she bows first. Then, she defers that honor to you. You will lose this honor immediately if you wink, eat with your left hand, look her in the chin for more than three seconds, or wear a hat. You can correct your mistake by winking with the other eye, eating with your right hand, looking at the high diplomat's chin for four seconds, or hanging your hat on the end of your erect…

The door chimed just as it was getting interesting.

"Come in."

The door swished open to admit his security chief, who dropped three large, ancient-looking books onto Ed's desk, just shy of squishing the Kermit the Frog doll that lived there.

"From the high diplomat of Okuul II," she said. "It seems their protocols are a little different from the way they do it on Okuul I, so he thought he'd send over a few pointers."

"Good _night._" Ed looked the stack of books up and down. "I had an apartment that size once. Are they even in Earth Common?"

Talla shrugged. "I don't read other people's mail, Sir."

"Well, maybe you should start. In the meantime, I'll need a write-up of which diplomats have access to which parts of the ship while they're here, preferably before Kelly and Gordon land."

"Aye, Sir." Talla turned toward the door, then hesitated. "Captain?"

"Mm-hm?"

"Why am I here and not there?"

Ed looked up from his briefing. "Sorry?"

Talla stepped back toward the desk. "Gordon and Kelly are on their way to a planet that was a war zone three weeks ago. Shouldn't I be with them?"

"Ideally, yes. But we're expecting a party of representatives from each side here on the ship, and Commander Grayson and I thought it was more important that you be around to make sure they don't go all Hatfield-McCoy on us."

"If that means what I think it means, I'm pretty sure it's what you'd call 'bullshit." At Ed's surprised look, she added, "Sir. I know I'm the new guy here, but is this because you think I can't protect them?"

"No!" Ed sighed and set down his pad. "All right. Kelly was the one who wanted to keep you here. And she was right. The last time I put the welfare of one crew member ahead of the whole ship, we turned an entire civilization into a brutal theocracy. Besides, Kelly's one of the toughest people I know."

"And Gordon?"

"He's…. a _great_ guy."

The com piped up, and a bass voice filled the room. "Bortus to Mercer."

"Go ahead," said Ed.

"We're being hailed by the Governer of Okuul II. She says it's urgent."

"I'll take it on the bridge." Ed closed the link and stood up. "God, I hope Gordon didn't draw a penis on their building."

Talla blinked as he headed out of the room. "A what on their what?"

Ed strode onto the bridge with Talla a step behind. "Put it through."

He almost sat in the command chair before the viewing screen popped on, showing a green-haired cat-eyed woman in a purple robe who looked to be standing. He straightened as if he'd just sat on a tack.

"Governor. I'm Captain Ed Mercer of the Orville. We're expecting your delegates later this evening. What can we do for you?"

"You can start by explaining why your own delegates are three hours late," the Governer said.

Ed's dark eyebrows furrowed. "Pardon me?"

"Your Commander Grayson, I believe. We've been waiting for her to arrive since 1400 hours. That's three hours wasted that we could have been furthering the cause of peace."

Ed felt his heart skip. "You haven't heard from her at all?"

"No. And if you cannot send someone who can at least offer the courtesy of punctuality, then we will find someone who can!"

"Thanks, sounds good, we'll call you back." Ed cut the link. "Bortus, hail the shuttle."

Bortus's fingers flicked over his console, then he shook his great round head. "No response, Captain."

"Last known location?"

"A star system approximately twenty thousand kilometers from their destination. Their energy signature than veers toward a planet." Bortus's console chirped, making him squint at the reading, and his voice darkened. "Captain. There is an additional energy signature in the area. It is Krill."

Ed stood frozen for a moment, suddenly feeling as frigid as the starry space beyond the viewing screen. "_Talla!_"

"…ordon?" Pat, pat… "Gordon? _Gordon._"

SMACK!

Gordon's head snapped to the side under the force of the slap to his face.

"Ow! Motherf…" He blinked his eyes open to find that he was lying on the deck of the shuttle. The blur hovering over him solidified into the disheveled face Kelly, a worry line between her eyebrows. She was framed by busted bulkheads, hanging wires, and a fair amount of smoke. There were even a few tree branches that had speared the shuttle's sides during the descent, jutting into the interior like limbo sticks.

"You know Commander, when you're trying to wake someone up from a concussion, it's generally a bad idea to give him another one."

"Come on." Kelly grabbed him and started pulling. "You've got to get up. We have to get the hatch open."

"We do?"

"Yes! Unless you want to suffocate."

Right, the smoke was getting a little thick. Gordon groaned as Kelly hauled him to his feet. For such a skinny woman, she was awfully strong. Together, they lurched to the hatch, which was already a little buckled from the impact of the landing.

"On three," said Kelly. "One, two, THREE!"

They each slammed a shoulder into the barrier, and with a great groan of protesting metal, the hatch gave way. Taken a bit by surprise at how easy it was, Gordon landed squarely on top of Kelly as the door _whumped_ to the ground.

"Whoa, jeez!" Gordon pushed himself up and scanned the coughing XO beneath him for injuries. "Sorry about that. Are you okay?"

"Get off me!"

He scooted back on his haunches and Kelly sprang up to dart back into the smoky shuttle, and emerge again with a black pack slung over her shoulder.

"What's that?" he asked.

Kelly glanced down at the pack, then frowned back at Gordon. "This? It's the emergency pack. There's one in literally every shuttle in the fleet."

"Right! With candy bars and travel scrabble and stuff."

"With water and a homing beacon and a first aid kit and stuff. Seriously, dude?"

"Oh."

Kelly rolled her eyes, grabbed a hand weapon from the pack, and slapped it into Gordon's hand. "_Here._ Try not to shoot yourself in the foot."

"Yes, Sir."

"Now let's go."

Gordon frowned at their surroundings. They were surrounded by something between a forest and a jungle, full of dense trees hung with vines and leafy canopies. The only break in the foliage was the hundred-yard rut that the shuttle had rent in the trees and soil before it finally came to a stop.

"Go… where, exactly? Shouldn't we stay with the shuttle? Aren't you supposed to stay with the shuttle when you're lost so people can find you?"

Kelly sighed, and spoke as though to a particularly dull child. "The Orville probably doesn't even know we're missing yet. If we stay with the shuttle, the Krill will find us long before our people do. In the meantime, we've got to get to higher ground for the homing device to be of any use. Did they go over _any_ of this when you went to the academy?"

"Yeah, I… must've been sick that day."

Kelly shook her head. "I can't believe I let you be in my wedding."

"Hey!" Gordon folded his arms, careful not to shoot himself as Kelly had ordered. "I did the roses for that wedding! That ought to count for something."

_CRACK!_

They both whipped their heads up to a nearby tree branch that was disintegrating in a shower of sparks before it broke off from the tree and landed at Gordon's feet, making him stumble backwards.

"If that's what I think it is, you can forget about roses, and make it lilies for both of us!" said Kelly. "Run!"

They took off through the trees, branches whipping and leaves stinging as they ran over the uneven ground. More shots whizzed through the air, so close that Gordon could feel their heat. As they passed a large boulder, he risked a look back and saw five Krill – four males and a female – crashing after them in their protective anti-UV gear. Dropping to one knee, he managed to return a shot that elicited a curse from one of them.

"Gordon!"

The next thing he knew, Kelly hit him in a flying tackle just as another volley of shots pierced the air where he had just been. Before he even had his bearings, she was rolling to her feet and pushing him on ahead of her.

"Run, you idiot! _Ungh_-"

Gordon stopped mid-stride and turned to see Kelly, dropped to her knees and grimacing as she made to push herself back up to her feet.

"Kelly!" Gordon returned a few more shots, which caused the Krill to take cover just long enough for him to grab Kelly's arm and pull her back up into the run.

They only made it another ten meters or so, and then the trees broke apart into thin air and the ground disappeared.

They teetered on the edge of the cliff they'd come to, Gordon going pale as he watched some pebbles from under the toe of his boot take the five-story drop and disappear into a rushing river far below. The precipice extended to their left with no apparent end. To the right, a huge waterfall cascaded down to feed a thirty-foot-wide river of white, churning water.

"Shit…" said Gordon.

_CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!_

They looked back to see the Krill dashing through the trail they'd cut, weapons blazing without missing a beat.

A look passed between Kelly and Gordon, hers with the determination of someone who knew she might lose resolve if she waited another instant, and his with the horrible understanding of a man who wanted to live just one more second.

Before he could say a word, she grabbed him by the jacket and flung herself off the cliff to the roiling water below, Gordon's cry echoing through the canyon for all the ages to hear.

"SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTT…!"

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	3. Tell Me How You Really Feel

The only noise was the rushing of the water as Colonel Herzic walked down the line of his away party, who stood ramrod straight in a line near the edge of the cliff. He came to a stop in front of his immediate subordinate, Major Olhn, who was nearest the precipice. Olhn just hoped that his UV protective helmet effectively hid the terror behind his bobbing Adam's apple.

"What do you mean they escaped?" Herzic growled from behind his own face shield.

Olhn gulped again, half-expecting to be plummeting to his own demise as soon as he got a single syllable wrong.

"Forgive me, Colonel. We forced them off this cliff. No human could survive that; they're too weak."

Herzic's helmet tilted slightly to the side. "Is that so? I didn't know we had an expert on human physiology in our midst."

"Yes, Colonel. I mean, no, Colonel. I'm not. But-"

Olhn froze when Herzic's face shield was suddenly less than an inch from his own. "You think humans are weak? I've hunted them for years. Heathens? Yes. Parasites? Of course. They are also _survivors_. That means that those two are _not_ dead until I see bodies."

"Yes, Colonel," Olhn squeaked. "But how?"

Herzic seemed about to speak, then hesitated and went down to one knee, where he touched a small, glistening puddle on the rocky ground. He stood again and examined his gloved fingers: red, sticky, and still warm.

"Do you know how to track a wounded animal, Major?"

Olhn nodded.

"Good." Herzic wiped his fingers on the front of Olhn's black jacket. "Then show me, or don't bother coming back. You have twelve hours."

With that, he turned and headed back toward their shuttle, leaving Olhn and the rest of the team to silently swear.

Kelly and Gordon weren't sure how they managed to stay together during the twenty or so minutes that the river tossed them about like a giant laundry dryer. Somehow, after being thrown around a hundred bends, nearly smashed into a thousand rapids, and inhaling what felt like half the volume of the cascade, they were deposited on a muddy bank just off of a small glen. There, they both crawled a few feet from the water line, where Kelly dropped to her side on the ground and Gordon stayed on his hands and knees to vomit large amounts of water before doing the same.

When she'd caught her breath enough to speak, Kelly pushed her sopping hair out of her face and asked, "You okay?"

"Sure," Gordon coughed. "Why? All we did was plummet a few stories into a river of unknown depth, possibly full of predatory alien fish, and almost drown. By the way, how did you know that was my favorite pastime? Remind me to have you plan my next birthday party. How are you?"

Kelly pushed herself up with a grimace. "Excuse me, _what_ is your problem? They were about to kill us!"

Gordon shrugged. "Nothing. I guess I just like to be asked before someone shoves me off a cliff to my probable doom is all."

"Oh, really? And when was I going to do that? Between getting shot in the ass and getting shot in the head, or after both of those?"

"Whoa, okay, your commanderness." Gordon sat up and raised his hands. "Don't mean to overstep when we're discussing _my_ mortality."

"I saved your life, you idiot. Twice. And if it weren't for you showboating up there, maybe we wouldn't have lost the engine and gotten stuck here in the first place!"

"Oh, yeah? How do you know?"

"Because I've studied Krill attack patterns for the better part of my career. Because anyone who tries to negotiate with them gets killed, skinned, and sometimes eaten, and only in that order if you're lucky. Literally every officer in the fleet knows those things except for you, Gordon Malloy."

Gordon opened his mouth, closed it, and then folded his arms. "I'm not an idiot."

"No? The capital of the United States was not Nabisco. The identity of Abraham Lincoln's assassin is not in question. Penicillin does not have an 'S' in it. And Mickey Mouse is not a famous mafia hit man! Those are all mistakes."

"Wait," said Gordon. "Mickey the Mouse _wasn't_ in the business? Then what the hell was he?"

"A fucking cartoon mouse!"

"Yeah, well… says the woman who cheated on the best guy in the galaxy!"

The look she gave him could have frozen the water in his beard. It was probably by the grace of her rank alone that she was the one to finally break their glaring contest.

"We have to find a place to hide," she said in an eerily quiet tone. "The suns are going down, and the Krill are going to take advantage of the darkness."

"Fine." Gordon got to his feet. "I suppose you're going to make me carry the emergency pack too, but I am not giving you my jacket if you get cold."

"Good, because I'd rather be naked – Ow!"

As soon as Kelly stood up as well, her face twisted in pain and she stumbled, managing to throw her arms around Gordon's neck before she could fall. Just as instinctively, Gordon caught her around the waist, and his right hand met with something warm and sticky. He glanced at his palm, and found it covered in blood.

"You're hurt!" he said, a little obviously.

Kelly shook her head, as much to clear it as to deny his statement. "It's just a graze. Jerk-offs hit me during the chase."

"Aw, man! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I was afraid you'd try to play doctor."

"You better let me take a look," Gordon said, not believing his own ears. He hated blood, and would rather have eaten a cactus than mess around with anything medical.

"I said I'm fine, Lieutenant."

"And you'll be just as fine if I slap a Bandaide on you. Come on."

With little recourse, Kelly let him help her a little distance from the riverbank, where he eased her to the ground at the base of a thick tree. Kneeling behind her, he found a singed hole in her uniform jacket at the small of her back, just to the left of her spine. Kelly stiffened as he gingerly lifted the back of the jacket and the black shirt underneath. Then, he was quiet for so long that she let out a nervous laugh.

"What's the matter? Never seen a woman's bare midriff before?"

"That's, um, more than a graze."

The wound was deep, and still oozing blood to mix with the river water that saturated her clothes. Before he could lose resolve, he ripped open the emergency pack, tore through the contents until he found the first aid kit, and clapped a bandage over the wound. Kelly gasped, nails digging into the dirt.

"We don't have time for this," she said through gritted teeth. "Those Krill will be down here to sweep the valley any second."

"Yeah, well, _you_ don't have time for this to wait. Just give me a minute."

Kelly sighed. "All right, fine. Just don't get fresh, or you can say good-bye to your two best friends. And I don't mean Ed and John."

Gordon snorted as he wound a roll of gauze around her middle. "I'd rather have a three-way with Bortus and Yaphit. There. Can you stand?"

"I think so." Kelly let him help her up, biting her lip to hold back a groan of pain. "Let's head down river. I think I saw some bluffs. If we're lucky, maybe we'll find a cave before dark."

With that, she shouldered the emergency pack and limped off, leaving Gordon to catch up with a sinking feeling. "Lucky" was not how he would describe how this day was going.

Thanks for reading, everyone! Please review!


	4. Camping Sucks

Sorry for the delay, but I've been busy giving birth. Hope this was worth the wait!

The sun set and the moons rose, and Gordon and Kelly hadn't said a word to each other since they'd set off downriver. Kelly hadn't even looked at him, just kept her eyes glued to the trail with her mouth a thin, grim line as the kilometers passed beneath their feet.

Just as stubbornly, Gordon refused to break the silence either. After all, _he_ hadn't done anything wrong. _He_ hadn't almost killed them by throwing them off a cliff or said anything that wasn't true. So if she expected him to make polite small talk or offer an apology, she had another think coming. He could be just as quiet as she could for just as long, and they'd see how she liked it. It certainly didn't bother him that Commander Harpy wasn't speaking to him, even if she was quite possibly the last human in the galaxy who would ever see him alive…

God dammit.

"I don't suppose you feel like letting me in on what the plan is?" he said.

"I told you the plan," Kelly said, eyes still straight ahead. "We find a cave in the bluffs and hide out until daylight."

"You said we'd find one before dark if we were lucky. Well, it's dark, so we can't be that lucky. And I think I'm getting a blister."

Kelly stopped walking, prompting Gordon to trip to a halt with her. Silhouetted by the moonlight, she stood with her hands on her hips, like a schoolmarm who'd had enough spitballs for one day.

"I'm sure you'll survive. But _we_ won't if I have to stop and explain everything."

Gordon threw up his hands. "What do you want from me, Commander? I'm a pilot, and there's nothing for me to fly right now. And maybe I'm not as smart as you or as brave as you or as tall as you, but I ought to at least know if I should prepare myself for waking up dead tomorrow."

Kelly hesitated for so long that he was surprised her next words weren't something to the effect of _Get bent_. "The rock faces will block the signal of our homing beacon. We're going to have to get about a hundred meters higher if _The_ _Orville _is going to have any chance of finding it. Not that we can do anything tonight; with the Krill and their night vision, they're just as likely to shoot us as we are to lose our footing in the dark and fall to our demise. Happy now?"

Gordon looked from the smooth, towering rock faces to Kelly and back. "_No!_"

"Gordon-"

"No, wait! You're telling me that we have to climb back up where we just jumped from if we're going to have any shot at being found? Why didn't you tell me this before we walked all this distance from our only sure way back up? Why didn't you tell me before we _jumped?_" He put up a hand and turned back toward the trail. "Never mind, I don't want to know. I'm sure it was in another of those academy classes I'm not smart enough for, because it's not like being a pilot takes any brains. Maybe calculus wasn't my strong suit, or physics, or typing, or…"

He was about ten paces farther down the trail when he noticed that Kelly wasn't beside him. His glance back over his shoulder turned into a double-take when he saw her in a pool of moonlight, collapsed onto the ground on one hip and elbow with a dizzy look in her eyes.

"Kelly?" Gordon dashed back to her and dropped to his knees. "What is it?"

"My back…" she gasped.

Gordon gingerly took her shoulders and turned her a bit to get a look. When he peeled the edge of her jacket up, he found the bandage he'd placed earlier was saturated with blood, and dripping into her waistband.

"Shit! Just-a-graze my ass. You know, for a smart person, you think you'd notice something like this!"

"I… didn't…" Kelly sighed and slumped in his grip.

"Kelly? Kelly! No, no, no, don't do this to me! Fuck!"

He grabbed the emergency kit and tore though it again, tossing extraneous items as he went: climbing rope, tarp, tiny Frisbee… good grief. Did the people who stocked these things expect them to get bored? Finally, he came up with a pair of scissors. He cut off the old bandage and clapped a new one over the oozing wound, cinching it as tight as he dared. It was all he could do until he got somewhere with better light.

"All right," he said, as much to quell the panic as anything. "All right. First things first, let's get the hell out of here."

He pulled her up by her wrists and hefted her onto his shoulder in a fireman's carry, eliciting a semi-conscious moan from her and a grunt from him. Why did she have to be so freakishly tall?

Just then, thunder cracked overhead and he felt the first drops of rain on his red hair. He sighed. Just when his uniform had gotten dry!

He set off in the same direction as before, despite the sinking feeling that Kelly hadn't actually had any idea which way was best, but had just picked one arbitrarily and pretended it was the best way because that's what commanders are for. He made it about fifty yards around a small bend in the river when the lightning flashed on the rock face, where an opening yawned into the mouth of a cave.

So she had known where she was going after all. And that was why Gordon Malloy never listened to his gut unless it came to piloting.

Ed settled into the pilot seat of the shuttle, running a mental checklist before he closed the hatch. Plotted course: Check. Excuses made to the chain of command: Check. Duties assigned to the appropriate underlings, including Kermit the Frog puppet: Check.

The sound of boots on the deck made him frown up from his console, and there was Talla, plopping herself into the copilot seat.

"Whew!" she said. "I thought I'd never get here in time. Ever get stuck in an elevator conversation with Dann? I was ready to stun him just to escape."

"Talla, what are you doing?"

"Risking my career to do the right thing, same as you."

"Talla –"

"And before you order me not to," Talla said, already logging into her own console, "think about this: would my talents be better suited helping you rescue Kelly and Gordon, or helping Bortus babysit a bunch of spoiled bureaucrats who care more about which fork to use than they do about getting home in time for dinner? Not to mention how you plan to stop a woman who can lift you both with one hand."

Just then, the com chimed. "Bortus to Mercer."

"Go ahead," said Ed, still frowning at Talla.

"The Okuulians are ready for you in the briefing room."

"Acknowledged. Tell them I've a bit been delayed, but I'll be with them as soon as I can."

The sound of Bortus clearing his throat made it clearly over the air. "They are most insistent, Captain."

Ed groaned, then paused halfway through running his hand through his hair. "Bortus, have Lieutenant Dann give my regrets. Then, lock the door."

"Understood, Sir. Bortus out."

Ed couldn't remember ever seeing the big Moclan smirk before, but if it was possible to _hear_ someone smirk, Ed was pretty sure it had just happened. He closed the hatch and opened the shuttle bay door.

"Let's go get our people, Lieutenant."

For one sweet moment, Kelly thought she'd fallen asleep on the floor, as she often had in younger, wilder days. She half expected that she could roll over and find Ed snuggled up against her back, and was about to test the fantasy when a stabbing pain just to the left of her spine catapulted her to full consciousness.

As her body spasmed, a gasp escaped her, and her hand clawed out for something to grab onto. Another hand appeared from nowhere and pinned it to the ground.

"Hey, hey! Hold still."

Waking up to the voice of the Gordon Malloy of all people behind her made her blink the blurriness from her vision as fast as she could. She was lying on her side on the lumpy floor of a cave. Light glowed from a small camping lantern nearby, and outside, a hard rain pounded in the night. Next to the lamp, there was a pile of bloody gauze.

"How… Where..?"

"We're in that cave you saw in the bluff," said Gordon. "Right where you said it'd be. I guess that's one to you, Commander."

Kelly squeezed her eyes shut as the pain quieted to an ache. "How long was I out?"

"I don't know; long enough for me to get us here, but not long enough for me to finish patching you up."

"I'm okay. I just need to… _Aigh!_"

When she tried to sit up, the pain returned tenfold. Gordon pushed her back down, and for the first time, Kelly caught a look at the worried furrow between his eyebrows.

"Hey, cut that out! This isn't as easy as Claire makes it look, you know."

That was when she noticed that her attempt to rise had caused the corner of the crinkly thermal sleeping bag she was in to fall away from her bare shoulder. She snatched the edge of it and drew it up to her chin.

"My clothes!"

With his face turning redder than his hair, Gordon pointed to a spot several feet away, where Kelly's jacket, shirt, and pants were draped over some boulders.

"They were wet," he said.

Kelly let her head fall back with a light thump. "Lord."

"Look, if me seeing you in your underwear is the worst thing that happens to you today, it's going better than I thought." He laughed awkwardly. "Try to hold still."

"Yeah, that's easy for you to say – _Ow!_"

"Sorry. So, what's the plan?"

"Um…" Kelly searched her foggy brain for the answer. "We hide until daylight. Then we find a way to higher ground, activate the beacon, and hold out until pickup."

"No offense, but do you really think you're in any shape to be climbing up a vertical rock – Whoops!"

"_Ungh!"_

"Sorry - vertical rock face? I mean, you were unconscious about two minutes ago."

Kelly tried to laugh. "Why, Gordon. If I didn't know better, I'd think you were concerned."

"About Ed strangling me if I let you die? Yes, I totally am. Is there a plan B?"

"Don't you worry about me. I'm not just going to lie here and die with – _Ooh!_" Kelly shoved her fist into her mouth and bit it. "What are you doing back there?"

"That would be the other bad news. I think the Krill weapon hit you with some kind of old fashioned projectile. Crude, but effective. It's called a bullet."

"I know what a bullet is, Gordon."

"Well, I think it hit something important, because you keep bleeding. I'm trying to find it and plug the hole."

"Then we'd better get out of here before I run out. _Ow! Mother- !_ If those jackasses were going to shoot me with a bullet, they could have at least given me a second one to bite on." Kelly took a few breaths to steady herself. "The pack. Where is it?"

Gordon paused in his fumbling ministrations to pull the bag into Kelly's reach. She took it and picked through it until she reached the bottom. Then, she went through it again.

"Shit, where is it? _Ouch!_"

"Sorry. Where's what?"

"The homing beacon. The one we've got to get to the top of the bluff."

Mercifully, Gordon stopped whatever he was doing to her back and took the bag from her. "Relax, I'll find it. What's it look like?"

"Metal disk about the size of your hand, with a spiral-shaped iris in the middle."

Gordon froze mid-rummage. "Doesn't happen to look like a tiny Frisbee, does it?"

Not liking his tone, Kelly peered back over her shoulder at him. "As a matter of fact. Why?"

"Nothing! Nothing. I think I see it right here under the granola bars. Hold that thought, I'm going to take a whiz."

He grabbed the lantern, jumped up and ran out into the rain before Kelly could say another word.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Gordon splashed through the darkness, rain and mud, the little lantern casting just enough light to show the ground under his own feet. The way he had to hunch over made him feel like a pig on the trail of forest truffles. "If something's that important, you'd think they could at least put a sign on it!"

He rounded the river bend back the way they'd come, and stopped short when he almost tripped over something. Looking down, he saw what looked like the edge of a tarp sticking out of the mud. He dropped to his knees and dug through the muck until his hand closed on something hard and curved. Yanking it out of the mud with a loud sucking noise, he found it was indeed the filthy homing beacon in his grasp.

"Yeah!" he crowed. "_God_, I hope this is waterproof."

The lightning cracked, and for an instant, the whole area was thrown into relief. He saw the river. He saw the tree line. And there, halfway between the two, he saw the bare white face of a Krill, rain dripping down the contortions of rage and triumph as he lifted his weapon at Gordon.

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